


Food For Thought

by OuyangDan



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 09:00:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2806937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OuyangDan/pseuds/OuyangDan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Commander is quick to figure out how Trevelyan deals with stress. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Food For Thought

Asa hovered, not quite in but not exactly out of the doorway to Cullen’s office. The three advisors looked rather informal, but she still didn’t know if she was allowed to just barge into meetings. 

What she was doing could hardly be considered barging, not with the icy timidity keeping her stuck to her spot on the floor. She rested her fingers on the frame of the door, watching them at ease in their confidence, these people who came up with names for her and went out of their way to encourage her to claim these things. It distressed her, churned her stomach and made her knees feel like jelly the way they seemed to dress her up for their cause. Sometimes her derriere went numb.

Josephine perched on the arm of one of the chairs, ankles crossed as she studied her clipboard. She balanced it with such grace she never spilled a drop of wax. Leliana wore what passed for a smile as she examined the contents of an elaborate box, sifting through it with a finger and thumb. She leaned against a ceiling-high bookcase, one leg propped behind her. Cullen sat on the edge of his desk, one hand rubbing his chin and the other crossed over his chest. 

“We have the barracks repaired. The cost was more than we’d estimated, but our soldiers are not an area where we can cut corners.”

“I agree,” Leliana said, her attention drawn to him from whatever she’d been fixated on.

“We have the money. Donations have already started to come in. A few more encouraging words in the right ears, and I believe that will continue.”

Each of them seemed to wear their roles well while hers hung like ill-fitting robes.

Josephine spotted her first. “Inquisitor. Please, come in.”

“Am I interrupting?” She took a single step further into the room, her hands clasped lightly in front of herself. “I can come back.”

“No. No, please. Come in.” Cullen stood and strode to the edge of the room, making it in two steps, to pull another chair towards his desk. “Sit. We were, uh, actually—“

“Talking about you, is what he means to say.” Leliana set the box on the desk with an amused smile. “In fact our commander can fill you in. Josephine and I have some very important work to do.”

“We do?” The other woman tilted her head and Leliana only raised an eyebrow before gesturing to the door.

“The correspondence which cannot wait.”

“Oh, yes. Yes of course.” Josephine inclined her head at Asa. “Inquisitor.” 

Asa watched them leave, furrowing her brow when Leliana gave her what felt like a secret smile as she closed the door.

“I really didn’t mean to interrupt.” She wound her fingers together, then unwound them, eyes darting around the room. 

“You’re not!” He stood up straight and gestured to the chair again. “We were just talking about the soldiers. There really isn’t much to discuss.” He canted his head and she looked at him finally. “Is something on your mind?”

“Not really,” she murmured, more to herself than to him. That didn’t even sound convincing to her. “I mean yes, but it’s not—“ Her eyes drifted to the box Leliana had left behind. “Is that chocolate?”

“What?” He followed her line of sight. “Oh. Yes, I believe so. Leliana must have forgotten it.”

“Oh.”

“She probably wouldn’t mind if you had one.”

“I really shouldn’t.” She pulled her mouth to the side and tapped a finger on the box, then stepped back and flopped into the chair.

He looked from her to the box. “Do you want to talk about it, whatever is not troubling you?”

She waved a hand, staring out the window across from her, watching the line of sun as it folded itself over everything in its path. 

He leaned on the desk again, and set one of the candies in front of her. “Just one.”

She looked from him to it and to him again. Drumming her fingers next to the chocolate, she sighed, then picked it up and bit half of it off. “You know I’m a mage, right?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “It had come to my attention, yes.”

Chewing, she talked around the candy with fingers in front of her mouth. “I mean, ‘magic exists to serve man’ and all.” She put the rest in her mouth. “I don’t understand why everyone is pushing me to the front of the Inquisition.” 

“Mm. This bothers you?” He looked at her for a moment, set another in front of her then crossed his arms.

Asa sighed and picked it up, taking a bite. “No. I mean yes. I mean, apart from what’s left of the chantry finding it heretical, and the fact that I have no experience leading a class of apprentices let alone any sort of army,” she popped the rest of the candy in her mouth, “or any sort of qualification beyond this thing on my hand.”

He was quiet, but another chocolate appeared in front of her. She picked it up without thought and bit into it. “I’m not a herald of anything, except maybe avalanches that get people killed.”

“Mm.” He set another one down and she popped the whole thing in her mouth. 

“People think Andraste hand-picked me to lead them against this, but really I am just a woman who tripped and fell and got really unlucky.” She rubbed at her eyes as he handed her another. “But I guess it makes them feel better.”

This time he held the box out to her. “You can’t really help what they think.”

“No, and I might not like it.” She took another. “Does it really matter if they believe it, but I don’t? The point is to give them something to rally behind.”

There were two more in the box. She plucked one up. “Thanks.” While she chewed it, her mind turned over her words. “So I guess the truth doesn’t matter that much, if it helps them.”

“Some might say that.” He set the box down, his lips turning up on one side. 

She smiled, relaxing into the chair and slapping both hands onto her lap. “Thank you, Cullen. You know, it really is nice talking to you.” 

He rested a finger and thumb over his mouth, watching her, then shifted his weight.

Asa stood and peeked into the box. “Is it okay if I take one of these for the walk back to my room?”

“I don’t think one will hurt.”

“Thank you.” She took it and started towards the door. “Oh. Was there something else you wanted to talk about?”

He half smiled and shook his head. “Ah, no. No, I think that’s everything. Unless,” he drew out the word, “you had anything you wanted to talk about?”

Fingers made a rhythmic pattern on the door as she shook her head. “No. That was all.”

His smile fell just a fraction, but he nodded. “Very well, Inquisitor.”

She hesitated before waving her fingers at him, then leaving.


End file.
